Football kicking tee



amh y 1967 R. E. CULLITY FOOTBALL KICKING TEE Filed Apri 17' 964 mlmllliillllllllllllnu Ill]illlllliililmmmw P/CHAED E CULL/Ty United States Patent Ofiiice lidddfld? Patented Mar. 14, 1967 3,399,.387 FGQTBALL KELKL'NG Richard Emmet Cnllity, La Mirada, Calif-Z, assignor to 2 V. Volt Rubber Corporation, a corporation of Caliornia Filed Apr. 17, 1964, Ser. No. 369,584 2 Claims. (Cl. 273-55) This invention relates to a football kicking tee used for supporting an ellipsoidal football during the kick-off periods at the beginning, half-time of the game and after completion of the scores when the football must be snpported by the kickingtee according to the official rules of the football game.

It is an object of this invention to provide a kicking tee which enables one to produce more accurate kicking of football, the greater accuracy being accomplished by providing a sighting line on the kicking tee for proper alignment of the tee with respect to the goal and a more accurate alignment of the ball on the kicking tee.

An additional object of this invention is to provide a kicking tee which has a concave rear wall for exposing a greater portion of the football for making the kick, and to enable one to obtain effective on side kickoifs, i.e., when the longitudinal axis of the football is in the horizontal position.

Referring to the drawings,

FIGURES 1 and 2 are two perspective views of the kicking tee;

FIGURE 3 is a longitudinal, vertical section of the tee taken along lines 3-3 illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the kicking tee.

Referring to the drawings, the kicking tee includes four football supports 10, 12, 14 and 1e projecting above the slightly concave surface 15 of the main body 17 and the top portion 11 of the kicking tee. The kicking tee is provided with three legs 18, 19 and 20 for threepoint support of the tee. A concave rear wall 22 joins the two rear legs 1d and 2h. The rear wall projects rearwardly to a considerable extent as indicated in FIGS. 3 and 4. The supports 10 and 12 are considerably higher than supports 14 and 16, the degree of projection being illustrated in its true proportions in FIG. 3. By projecting supports 10 and 12 considerably higher than supports 14 and 16, it becomes possible to position the football at a reasonably large angle, FIG. 3, with respect to the horizontal line 300. One possible position of the football on the tee is illustrated in FIG. 3 by a dotted line 302, with the longitudinal axis 3&4 of the football making an angle with the horizontal line 300. This angle is in the order of 60 in the illustrated example.

In order to provide slip proof engagement between the lower tip 305 of the football and the adjacent surface of the kicking tee, the upper surface 25 of the kicking tee top 11 is provided with a plurality of parallel ribs 26 which engage the tip 305 of the football in positive manner as illustrated in FIG. 3. Thus, the football can be positioned, without slipping, at any desired angle with respect to the tee. The ribbed portion also is made slightly concave to engage a greater surface of the football tip.

The tee is also provided with an imbedded groove colored black, or in some other contrasting color, which produces a sighting line 27. The sighting line bisects the tee and the rear wall in the manner illustrated in the drawings. Line 27 enables one to aim the tee toward the mid-point between the goal posts. The same line is also used for properly positioning the football on the kicking tee because the rear and the front portions of the sighting line 27 are still visible when the football is placed on the kicking tee and, therefore, the longitudinal axis 334 of the football can be aligned with a reasonable degree of accuracy with the sighting line 27 by using the seams of the football for such alignment.

Since the rear side-wall 22 is a concave side-wall, it now becomes possible to reach the lower portion of the football with the toe of the kicking shoe, with the result that the kicking tee exposes a greater surface of football for available contact between the football and the kicking toe. This enables one to produce a greater variety of kicks than in the past because the kicking tees of the prior art exposed only a limited portion of footballs for making the kick. The concave rear wall and the presence of the legs which raise the football above the ground higher than the kickoff tees of the prior art also enables one to produce effective and accurate on side kickoff when the longitudinal axis of the football is in horizontal position. Such position is illustrated by a dotted line 200 in FIG. 2.

What I claim is:

1. A football kicking tee comprising a main central body of the tee, said central body including a downwardly concave upper surface having a plurality of, downwardly concave ribs conforming to the configuration of the upper surface positioned therealong, a single front leg and two spaced rear legs extending downwardly from said body, said front leg also comprising the front wall of said tee and said ribs being positioned in a direction substantially parallel to the front wall, two front football supports and two inwardly concave rear football supports extending upwardly from said-body, and an in wardly concave rear wall interconnecting said two rear legs, the lower portions of said two rear legs extending rearwardly and beyond said concave rear wall and said rear wall also extending inwardly beyond a plane passing through the longitudinal axes of said two rear supports to facilitate kicking a football therefrom.

2. A kicking tee comprising right and left rear legs and one front leg, said front leg also comprising a front sidewall of said tee, right and left side-walls interconnecting the right and left ends, respectively, of said front leg with said right and left rear legs, said right and left sidewalls having concave surfaces flaring outwardly in the direction of their respective right and left rear legs and the transverse dimension between said rear legs being greater than the transverse dimension of said front leg for increasing the stability of said tee, said right and left legs forming right and left football supports as they extend upwardly above said side-walls, a concave rear wall interconnecting said rear legs, and a central body of said tee interconnecting all of said walls, saidcentral body having two front and two rear football supports projecting upwardly from said central body, and a downwardly concave upper surface having a plurality of downwardly concave ribs conforming to the configuration of the upper surface positioned therealong in a direction substantially parallel to the front leg to provide slip-proof engagement with said surface.

7 References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 150,195 7/1948 Barton. D. 195,088 4/1963 Box D34'5 1,783,211 12/1930 Baldwin 273l83 RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

L. I. BOVASSO, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A FOOTBALL KICKING TEE COMPRISING A MAIN CENTRAL BODY OF THE TEE, SAID CENTRAL BODY INCLUDING A DOWNWARDLY CONCAVE UPPER SURFACE HAVING A PLURALITY OF DOWNWARDLY CONCAVE RIBS CONFORMING TO THE CONFIGURATION OF THE UPPER SURFACE POSITIONED THEREALONG, A SINGLE FRONT LEG AND TWO SPACED REAR LEGS EXTENDING DOWNWARDLY FROM SAID BODY, SAID FRONT LEG ALSO COMPRISING THE FRONT WALL OF SAID TEE AND SAID RIBS BEING POSITIONED IN A DIRECTION SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO THE FRONT WALL, TWO FRONT FOOTBALL SUPPORTS AND TWO INWARDLY CONCAVE REAR FOOTBALL SUPPORTS EXTENDING UPWARDLY FROM SAID BODY, AND AN INWARDLY CONCAVE REAR WALL INTERCONNECTING SAID TWO REAR LEGS, THE LOWER PORTIONS OF SAID TWO REAR LEGS EXTENDING REARWARDLY AND BEYOND SAID CONCAVE REAR WALL AND SAID REAR WALL ALSO EXTENDING INWARDLY BEYOND A PLANE PASSING THROUGH THE LONGITUDINAL AXES OF SAID TWO REAR SUPPORTS TO FACILITATE KICKING A FOOTBALL THEREFROM. 